Yep Jules, it seems that everyone asking me about how we're sleeping just seems to contribute to sleep anxiety. And in my experience, anxiety about sleep is just as bad as sleep deprivation.

Our self-settling is actually going really well, thanks to the hammock - it makes it so easy to just bounce her off to sleep. I always try to see if she can doze off without the bouncing and let her whinge for a bit - when she's whinging, I put my hand on her chest and sshh her just so that she knows that I'm there. If that doesn't work, then I'll bounce the hammock and she usually drops off within a few minutes. The catnaps are also improving which is good - fingers crossed.

For me, the gentle self-settling is working really well - and it frustrates me that the early childhood nurses don't suggest this as a first step for "sleep training".

I've also relaxed a lot about the whole sleep issue - it helps to realise that babies change so often, it's impossible to find patterns of "progression". For eg. I was blessed to have 3 sleep through the nights last week, and just as I got excited about it - she went back to 1 wake-up (not so bad, since I was quite happy with the one wake-up), and then went back to the 3 wake-ups. I'm not stressing about it though, like everything with babies, she'll change back again in her own good time.